Dear Hawaiian Airlines...

Ryan forwards along his letter to Hawaiian Airlines:

I recently moved to Waikiki and I love getting to and from the islands on any one of Hawaiian Air's planes. Your customer service is great and flying with you is a generally pleasant experience.

However, there's a problem. Getting to your gates is somewhat of a hassle. You see, I either have to submit to a machine-generated strip search or undergo a rather vigorous groping by a TSA agent. What the hell?

Flying used to be magical to me. I remember flying to Canada when I was just six years old. That was THE experience of my then still short lifetime. We used to be able to check in, hand over our baggage, and just saunter to the gates without being stopped and harassed by a Federal agent.

Strip-searches are usually reserved for prison inmates suspected of carrying contraband. Are we arrestees? No! We're ordinary Americans merely trying to see an old friend, attend a business meeting, or just trying to get somewhere for an enjoyable vacation. Grandma in the wheelchair or that double amputee with the prosthetics are hardly a terrorist threat.


When I moved to Hawaii, I told my family I would be back for Christmas. I miss them a great deal already. However, in light of the recently implemented measures the TSA is pushing on us, and of the fact that the TSA website lists HNL and LAX as airports with imaging machines, which means I'll most likely be forced to submit to a groping if I opt-out of the strip-search, I've decided to cancel my holiday plans and spend Christmas here on the islands.

How much more customers are you willing to lose to this lunacy before you grow a spine and stand up with us to lobby against the Federal Government, pushing for the abolition of these methods and the TSA?

I am completely confident that Hawaiian Air and the other airlines are more than knowledgeable of what it takes to ensure passenger, crew and plane safety, and more inclined to actually, properly implement the appropriate measures because your livelihoods depend on it. The government does not, because they can fund themselves at the point of a gun.

One Loyal but Disgruntled Customer,
Ryan Marshall